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By John Taylor (contact) 
Friday, Jan. 18, 2013 | 2 a.m.
No one could have prepared us for the hair-pulling frustrations of trying to buy a house in the Las Vegas marketplace. I was moving my family from Kansas in 2012, and it seemed like a great time to buy a home. Throughout the valley, houses were available for a fraction of what they sold for only a few years ago. There were traditional sales, foreclosures and short sales (where the lender allows the owner to sell the house at current market value, even if the existing mortgage is a lot more). We decided to stay away from foreclosed homes and ...
It's a shame you had to deal with such ineptitude on the part of the lenders. Our short purchase, which closed late August, 2011, went so smoothly that we wondered what all the fuss about buying a home was all about. Of course, we didn't deal with lenders like Wells Fargo or BofA, which was our bank at the time - we put an app in with BofA, received pre-approval, sent them all the requested documents ... and were then completely ignored by them. Fortunately, we had another lender on the line and were only applying with BofA to see if they'd give us a better rate. In the end, our short purchase was about 2-1/2 months from entry of bid to closing.
We started our SS process on Jan 3, 2012.
Our house had two offers to purchase it one day later (both for cash and both above the sale price). The SS was completed Spetember 2012 (9 months later). We had two mortgage holders. Both banks were terrible to work with. Our realtor said they were the worst banks she had ever had to deal with. Actually, we had Sen. Harry Reid's office step in twice with each bank to finally get the SS completed. If it weren't for Sen. Reid I believe we would still be waiting for a response from these banks. It is a very frustrating process, but we are SOO glad it is done.
John,
Well written article.
Just glad it was not me and it's hopefully over.
Indeed a true mess.
It sounds like BOA, Wells Fargo and other large lenders aren't the way to go.
Another of the thousands of reasons to boycott BofA
Comment removed by moderator. Personal Attack
The mentioned two banks BOA and WF says it all. I did a cash sale on a short sale and still waited 6 months. Same thing hurry up and wait BOA wanted everything now and them I waited for them to respond.I was living in NYS and the seller in Florida. Cutting through the story I had a home inspection done in May 2012 risking the possibility of loosing the cost of that if the deal fell through but hoping it would speed up the process. One week before the schedule closing BOA wanted $3,000.00 more from the seller and they were negotiating that with the possibilities of me having to help pay some of it. Well that worked out and finally we closed.Everything in the process was smooth until the bank got involved WE HAVE A BANKING PROBLEM IN THIS COUNTRY NOT A HOUSING CRISIS. So if you are going to do a short sale be prepared for a long wait and much frustration also start the process long before you need to move worst thing is the house sits empty for a few months longer before you move in but you save $$$ by not renting and storing stuff. One other thing at the end of the closing we were given 5 days to have the home inspection walk through and the money wired to BOA and the HOA info sent to read and approve even though each item had time limits such as 5 days for the inspection 3 days for the HOA stuff and etc. I knew the market had changed here and did not ant to go back and start from scratch so I as over a barrel.
Appreciate sharing of story -- we had two accepted bids for the purchase of a couple short-sale homes in January/February of 2012 -- although the lien holder approved the sale within the escrowed 60 days on one home, the seller couldn't come to terms with lien holding financial institution's conditions which attempted to hold seller liable for unpaid balance -- we agreed to make a reasonable cash contribution (extortion payment) to seller at closing but apparently the amount wasn't enough -- seller wanted substantially more money than our purchase contract agreed to -- retrived escrow funds -- home went back on market and apparently sold last month at the substantially higher price --
After nine months waiting on the other home, again the sellers/lien holders want substantially more money than what they had agreed to -- we retrieved our escrow funds while home currently remains on market. In both cases, substantially more and unacceptable amount of money than what was agreed to was requested from sellers/lien holders.
Lesson: Short-Sale purchase agreements are not to be trusted, while buyers risk losing their escrow deposits (as damages) to sellers if buyers don't adhere to agreement there is nothing which holds sellers/lien holders equally accountable to buyers when contract terms are not adhered to by sellers -- understand those negotiating purchase agreement are the sellers, not lien holders.
It is our contention that lien holders AND sellers should come to agreement upon price/terms PRIOR to being ALLOWED to place any home upon the open market for purchase -- buyers, sellers, realtors, escrow agencies, financial institutions, etc. would all be better off if short-sale pre-approvals were required from the sellers/lien holders before introducing homes to the market place -- much like loan pre-approval requirements for home buyers entering the market place -- allowing the "short" into the sale.
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Wells Fargo is without a doubt the WORST company in the WORLD to deal with!!!! I've had a 3 year battle with them over my house in Florida and it's still not settled. Of course, my contact with the bank "moved on" and no one else has a clue what's going on! Never again will I purchase a home!!!!
well.. The only difference between my case and your case that I am still waiting on Bank approval. I started the process in May first week..!!!
8 months and still waiting....!!
Great article. I completed a short sale this past year that took 5 months to close. I went with Nevada Federal Credit Union as my lender, and they were great. However, we had to deal with BoA and Chase for the seller's end of it. The extensions were the most stressful part. And the day it was to close, a Friday, the deal was flagged because of a 2 cent discrepancy on the docs. I volunteered to drop two cents off at BoA, but naturally, that was too simple of a solution. An agonizing weekend followed being that the extensions were set to expire that coming Monday. However, I got the good news phone call, and I'm still recovering from that hangover. In the end, though, it was worth it, since the house was a smoking deal, and houses in my neighborhood are now selling at about 20-30% more than what I paid.
My realtor just told me about one she closed that took a year and was a heartbreaker. When we bought in 2011 we looked only at properties that were ready to close upon agreement. A short sale means you have to negotiate with both the mortgagee and the mortgagor, a nightmare for all involved. Unfortunately, so many properties here are bought for cash that availability is reduced to these problematic properties for those needing to enter into or get out of one.
Well written article. I was feeling sorry for you for awhile. I'm happy for you guys and the dogs that you got the home. I was lucky and did a traditional purchase on my home. I paid more because of financing and doing a regular purchase, but the process went smooth. I used quicken loans and they did a great job handling my purchase. I read different reviews on their refi process, but for a first mortgage they did me right. I havnt head a good story from anyone using boa or wells yet. What a surprise.
You should have hired a competent short sale real estate agent or broker who has done 100's of these, and who would have controlled this whole process hawkishly for you with the banks. It should not have taken more than 4 months with your financing. I have seen straight cash sales close in 30-45 days.
We will be 6 months into waiting on a short sale a/o Feb. 1st. We have no idea when this will be completed or what the price will be. We keep hearing that more documents are being requested and our hopes go up but then nothing. The bank just requested another BPO, according to the listing agent. We were told that the bank is supposed to give a response within 3 months according to the law. But no one enforces that law. We have tried buying another house but we get pushed out by cash buyers. We bid 20k more than listing on a house and were told that there were 23 bidders and that our offer wasn't good enough to be invited back for the next round. I blame Gov. Sandoval and Attorney General Catherine Masto for passing AB 284. This law made it much more difficult for banks to foreclose so people are just squatting without paying a dime. That is the reason that foreclosures stopped and all the inventory went away. I would tell anyone thinking of moving to Las Vegas to wait someday these foreclosures are going to hit the market and it will tank. AB 284 has guaranteed that the LV housing market will not recover years.
The last short sale I did was a pre approved price, and I paid all cash, no loans. It only took 5 months..and they would not even give me a key to the property when it closed, and I left the full amount for closing in cash for 3 months, said to call a locksmith.. B of A changed the locks when it found the property was not occupied, their agent had no clue.